* <<F4A.1138>> Atheism is not a religion

(Facebook discussion)

The first sentence of that Wikipedia article isn't a complete 
definition of religion; that's why there's a note. The Definitions 
section of the article contains the important points, which were left 
out.  Religion isn't merely a system of beliefs; it's a system of 
beliefs regarding sacredness, divinity, spirituality, &c.. 

With regards to Mr. Powell's statement that "denial is not proof" -- 
of course it's not.  Who ever said it was?  The onus is on the deist 
to prove the existence of their god(s) and not on the atheist to 
disprove them.  Religions provide positive assertions: there is a 
heaven, there is a hell, we have immortal souls, there is a god, and 
so-on.  The rejection of assertions for which there is no proof and 
for which there likely cannot be proof does not constitute a 
religion.  Jesse's Santa Claus/Tooth Fairy argument exemplifies this 
perfectly: you don't reject the reality of these things because your 
of your religion, you reject them because you've no reason to believe 
them.

Atheists come in all sorts, as do the faithful.  There are atheist 
zealots, certainly, and I do think it's fair to say that for some 
people their atheism is tantamount to a religion.  But, I think the 
quiet majority of atheists, those of us who tick "non-religious" on 
our census forms, are de facto atheists.  We're simply not religious. 
 We don't have a desire or need to believe in the supernatural, the 
metaphysical, the spiritual, and we reject assertions of the reality 
of these things because they're inconsistent with our own experience.

Saying that an empty container is full of emptiness makes a kind of 
poetic sense, but the container is still empty.  An observer may 
imagine the container filled with their concept of emptiness, but 
that's in the observer's mind.  The container is empty.

With regards to evolution as religion: balderdash.  I presume the 
"religion" of evolution is inclusive of abiogenesis, and that's 
really the big point of contention, but evolutionary theory makes no 
claims about the sacred, the divine, the spirit, and so-on, and fails 
to qualify as a religion on that point. There is nothing in 
evolutionary theory that says the mechanism of evolution (including 
abiogenesis) cannot be guided by the hand of god.   

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Excerpted from:

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©2015 Adam C. Moore (LÆMEUR) <adam@laemeur.com>